A Look into the Biggest Deals of Free Agency

It has been a couple of weeks since free agency began, and in a surprise turn of events, most of the deals had already made in the early tampering period. Quite a few huge deals were made in free agency, and depending on who you ask could be perceived as good or bad. In this piece we will examine the pros and cons of each free agency deal.

Malcolm Butler to the Titans: Malcolm Butler signed a deal worth 60 million over five years, with 30 million guaranteed.

Pros- The Titans, despite having defensive stats that don’t indicate poor play, looked atrocious when teams actually attacked their biggest weakness. They were terrible against short passes and teams destroyed them when they utilized consistent short passing. The Patriots exposed this flaw in the divisional round of the playoffs and diced the Titans up. Malcolm Butler will bring depth and solidify the corner back core as a number one corner back while allowing Adoree Jackson or Logan Ryan to play slot. This should also help the interception rate, with the Titan’s getting just 12 on the year and 8 of those coming from all pro safety Kevin Byard.

Cons- It is a high risk signing due to a plethora of mysterious concerns surrounding Malcolm’s benching in the Super Bowl. Alongside that he had a down year in 2017. His deal indicated top 10 corner back play so he has high standards to set for the team.

Nate Solder to the Giants: Nate Solder signed a deal worth 62 million over 4 years.

Pros: If you have not noticed it yet, the Giant’s offensive line was atrocious. Bringing in a top tier free agent, relative to the other tackles in this free agency class, will most definitely help the team as they go through a rebuilding phase. With other offensive linemen leaving, they are in dire need of solidifying at least one piece of the puzzle.

Cons: They paid him as a top offensive tackle. He is not a top offensive tackle. His play was above average and could be shaky at times. Such a blockbuster deal should be used on a player who is actually proven to be a top 3 player at their position. This deal was just pure desperation by the Giants in order to help who ever the quarterback is next year.

Andrew Norwell to the Jaguars: Andrew Norwell signed a 5 year 66 million dollar contract.

Pros: With Blake Bortles as your quarter back, you definitely need a strong run game to compensate for a high rate of turnovers and slow passing game. With the Norwell signing, they should be able to utilize Fournette more efficiently and pound the ball at will. A good protector for Blake Bortles as well when he needs to throw the ball, but that aspect is less important than the huge upgrade to the Jaguar’s offensive line.

Cons: The only real con is that it is a long term deal that could go wrong if he fizzles out for some reason and they poured an extensive amount of resources into bringing him in.

Trumaine Johnson to the Jets: Signed a 5 year 72 million dollar contract.

Pros: The Jets were looking for a proven game changer, and even though they have a promising safety duo in Jamaal Adams and Marcus Mayes, they are both still young in their career. Trumaine Johnson will be a great CB 1 that will solidify a defense that was sometimes underachieving and change games in favor of the Jets. Will bring a veteran presence into the locker room.

Cons: A lot of money will be put on a guy who is not the number one corner in the league, even that is what his contract indicates. Luckily for the Jets, they have an immense cap space and can easily pay that money for such a game changing presence.

Still Waiting on: Ndamukong Suh

Could potentially be an insane contract because of his ability to automatically boost an entire defense. Would bring a strong locker room presence, good or bad, but works hard and pushes hard in games.